Sony NEX-C3 and 5n High ISO noise

These are ISO 6400 shots, same everything, auto white balance etc.

In terms of colour balance, both are actually way off. However the NEX-5n is definitely "cleaner". I thought at first that it had smudged more detail, but if you look at the middle word on the headstock, the 5n has actually recorded more detail.

Whether this is an "improved" sensor or better in-camera processing I'm not qualified to say. However I know which I prefer.

Please note:- This isn't in any way a "scientific" test, and I don't have the means to do one. However these results are similar to other comparisons that I have done. It proves only that my NEX-C3 seems noisier at high ISO's than my NEX-5n.

Sony NEX-5N High ISO - is it the best I've ever used? - SonyImagePlus? - A77 jpgs.

Sony NEX-5N 18-55mm photographed with NEX-C3 and 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom at ISO 3200

As part of my plan to become SonyImagePlus! I bought a NEX-5N yesterday, and I have ordered the add-on OLED viewfinder. 

Sony NEX-5N 18-55mm photographed with NEX-C3 and 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom at ISO 3200

The NEX-5N is getting rave reviews across the board. In particular people are commenting on how good the high ISO performance is. Well they are 100% right. The answer to the question in the title of this piece is yes, these are the best high ISO results I've ever seen on a camera I've owned. 

These below are at ISO 12800.

Sony NEX-C3 Alpha > NEX adapter 16-50mm f/2.8 photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 12800

Sony NEX-C3 Alpha > NEX adapter photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 12800

Sony A77 16-50mm f/2.8 SAM and NEX-C3 85mm f/2.8 SAM photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 12800

Sony A77 85mm f/2.8 SAM photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 12800

If you compare them with the ISO 3200 achieved with the NEX-C3 at the top of the page, you'll see what I mean. These are really superb, clean and sharp, and these results make a mockery of most cameras high ISO performance.

Below are samples at ISO 6400 and 3200.

Sony NEX-C3 85mm f/2.8 SAM photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 6400

Sony NEX-C3 85mm f/2.8 SAM photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 6400

Sony NEX-C3 Alpha > NEX adapter 16-50mm f/2.8 photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 6400

Sony NEX-C3 Alpha > NEX adapter 16-50mm f/2.8 photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 6400

Sony a77 85mm f/2.8 SAM photographed with NEX-5N and 18-55mm zoom at ISO 3200

I would add that these large lenses on the small NEX bodies actually handle very well. In fact the larger the lens the more "natural" it feels. Even on the largest DSLR there are still lenses that overwhelm even them, so they have to be used in a "lens cradled" position anyway. Its going to be interesting to see how the new adapter with the SLT functions. I'm planning to get one of those when they become available.

Sony NEX-5N 16-50mm photographed with NEX-C3 and 16mm f/2.8 zoom at ISO 3200

Sony NEX-5N 16-50mm photographed with NEX-C3 and 16mm f/2.8 zoom at ISO 3200

Sony NEX-5N 16-50mm photographed with NEX-C3 and 16mm f/2.8 zoom at ISO 3200

SONYIMAGEPLUS?

You thought that was a joke right? Well it seems thats the way I'm heading. The three cameras and accessories that Sony announced together are the basis of what I see as an integrated modular system. That should allow me to put together a smaller, lighter and cheaper system than I have currently, with the potential to give me superb image quality, plus the versatility to handle anything, either for my core stock work or indeed any commercial and commissioned work that comes along.

A77, NEX-7 and NEX-5n cameras give me large files, cover any high ISO needs I might have and high quality video. With the SLT adapter I can use alpha mount lenses in addition to the (somewhat sparse at the moment) e-mount selection. 

So, no more having to put together different systems, which has always meant a certain amount of duplication. No more fiddling around with manual focus lenses. No more different sensor sizes. The APS-C format suits me very well. It still gives me close to the m4/3 depth-of-field advantage, plus with the NEX-5N, high ISO performance that is probably way beyond what I normally need, but handy to have anyway. Because Sony do make light lenses, my weight concerns are taken care of, and while I do realise some of their offerings are  "lightweight" in build quality, I really don't give my equipment that much of a hard time. Finally in terms of image quality, no I'm not going to get the "ultimate", but its certainly well up to the standard I require and the particular market I supply has no problem with it.

A77 JPGS.

Finally, as a follow-up to the piece I wrote on the A77 jpgs., I've been sending off out-of-camera jpg. files to many of the stock libraries who market my work. This includes some of the very "picky" ones. They are all accepting them with no problem. 

I have often written about how these libraries are more concerned about other image qualities than sharpness.. The assumption is always that the buyer will sharpen for use after deciding on the size for reproduction. This has always been the way it works, and as I've pointed out in the past, companies like Getty recommend that files look slightly soft. CA is generally regarded as worse than this slight softness (by this I mean how images look out of the camera with no sharpening applied) and since the a77 "cleans up" its jpgs very well in this regard, I can see why the libraries would like them.

Add in the fact that when a77 images are reduced in size, which will be the case in the large majority of sales, the softness disappears anyway. For example, if I reduce an a77 jpg. file down to the dimensions of an image shot on 12MP m4/3, it does then look sharper than the equivalent original m4/3 jpg. and pretty close to a carefully processed raw file taken with the best lenses m4/3 can offer. Since I sell very few full-size, high resolution images, these supposedly "soft and mushy" jpgs. will never appear as such to clients, at the smaller sizes they download. If they do buy a full-size file, its still going to look fine since photographers and libraries have been up-sizing digital camera images for years, with a consequent softening of detail. 

So, in terms of what I do the a77 jpgs. seem to be no handicap. As a long time advocate of shooting raw, it may come as a surprise that I'm now sending of jpgs. However files from the a77 are proving very difficult when it comes to removing CA, and the jpgs. from the camera are almost all 100% "clean". Until I come up with a lens profile that works, or Sony send one to Adobe, I may be uploading jpgs. for a while. Not ideal as I'm a bit neurotic about this, but if the people who pay my bills are happy, why should I complain?

Sony 85mm f/2.8

Sony A77 85mm f/2.8

There's a somewhat (incorrect) assumption that Sony don't make many decent lenses.

Personally I've never had a problem with them. The 85mm f/2.8 SAM is a case in point. Cheap, light and sharp. The A77 sensor shows just what its capable of. Its even sharp wide open.

Sony A77 85mm f/2.8

Sony A77 85mm f/2.8

These were taken on a NEX-C3, via the Sony adapter. Very slow AF but of course with the focus peaking feature MF is easy. The lens worked well on this camera too.

Sony EX-C3 85mm f/2.8

Nice lens.

Sony NEX-C3 and Nikon lenses

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 85mm f/1.8

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 35mm f/1.8

Having quite a few cameras and lenses around means that there are lots of different combinations to try. I've tried these two lenses on the NEX-C3 but I hadn't as yet tried them out "in the field".

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 35mm f/1.8G

I've always thought the 35mm f/1.8 is a really good lens. There is a Dpreview review of it here.

I can only agree with what they said:-

"....the 35mm F1.8G DX is, for its winning combination of high image quality, large maximum aperture and low price, a lens which deserves to be on many a Nikon shooter's shopping list."

Whenever I've had a Nikon camera, I've had one of these. I've even used it on a Nikon D3X, using the 5x4 sensor crop on that camera and it was very good indeed.

It worked very well on the NEX-C3. I was able to change the aperture, but the nature of the adapter meant that it wasn't easy to know exactly what I was using, but from the shutter speed readout I would estimate that these are within the f/5.6 > f/11 range. 

Everything was shot in the 16:9 Panaoramic mode.

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 35mm f/1.8G

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 35mm f/1.8G

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 35mm f/1.8G

The other lens I used was a Nikon classic. The 85mm f/1.8D. Ken Rockwells review of it here.

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 85mm f/1.8D

 

 Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 85mm f/1.8D

Lovely sharp results from both lenses. Both should work very well with a NEX-7.

Sony NEX-C3 and manual focusing

All images - Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

Following on from yesterdays excursion with the Nikon 10-24mm zoom, I went out with the Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron lens on the NEX-C3 to have a more leisurely look at the possibilities for using zone focusing with MF lenses using the peak focusing feature.

For some things like the shot above, it works very well. The focus peaking is a series of highlights which moves across the screen showing the area of the image thats in focus.

This is an imagingresource video of how it works.

The images of the stonework above was shot at f/2 and it enabled very precise focus, very quickly.

Again the above shot was easy and quick. Again at f/2 I wanted the flowers to be in focus and as much of the rest as was possible at that aperture.

Where it does give a false impression is where things are head on. The following shot was at f/16, so it wasn't much of a problem.

However if you are looking for part of the image to be in sharp focus, it can sometimes be tricky to see exactly where this is. With more practice and looking at the results, I should be able to guage more accurately, how its going to turn out.

So is it a more useful method than using the lenses DOF scale and the hyperfocal distance? Well for close objects it probably is. It saves having to do a distance estimate and it does graphically show the areas of acceptable focus. Plus for critical focusing, there is always the option of using the magnification screen.

NEX-C3 and ultra wide angle

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Its good to move out of my comfort zone occasionally. Yesterday I was trying the Sony NEX-3 with my Nikon 10-24mm zoom fitted via an adapter to see how the camera worked with an ultra-wide angle.

Its not pretty!

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom

I was using it with the focus peaking feature on the camera, which worked very well and gave me the ability to use zone focusing. However, this is focus by wire method, and aperture selection via the adapter is largely guesswork.

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

It did however enable me to shoot a style of picture that I do very rarely. Partly because of the nature of the camera, and partly because I was in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon, which is full of tourists and people using cameras, I was totally ignored.

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

It wasn't perfect and occasionally I missed the focus for a shot, which was to do with the fact that the lens is not really suitable for what I was doing. However I was using it to see if it was worth getting myself one of the very small Voigtlander 12mm m-mount lenses, which with its aperture ring and DOF scale would be much more useful for this, and other types of wide-angle photography.

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

Sony NEX-C3 Nikon 10-24mm zoom lens

I also used the camera with a Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar, and that also worked well.

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

I must admit I am warming to the NEX-C3, but there were times when I could have really used a viewfinder. As I've said often enough, having the option of screen or EVF is essential for what I do, and while the screen worked well enough yesterday, there were occasions when the the more precise focus I could get from an EVF would have been very useful.

However it was a successful trial and left me wanting to do more.